Release Date: 01 February 2006
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313263721
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Der fremde Blick
Description
Medieval Christian, Jewish and Islamic Music and Poetry from the MediterraneanThe Mediterranean is a meeting place, an inland seathat, on its shores, is home to the peoples and cultures ofthe East and the West. Over centuries it has providedopportunities for encounters, whether in war or in peace,or in trade.The ideas of East and West, Orient and Occident,have always been symbols of the rising and setting ofthe sun, and are still associated today with light anddark, but unfortunately also with right and wrong orgood and bad, a sad reflection of the centuries oldstruggle between Judaism, Christendom and Islam inmatters of ideology. Nevertheless there were alwaysplaces where these three great Mediterranean culturesco-existed peacefully and fruitfully. In the Middle Agesthe most important example of such a multicultural andmultireligious exchange was, paradoxically, theMoorish Andalusia in the West and, competing withRome, Christian Byzantium in the East. The distinctiveideas of Orient and Occident seem here to be blurred.'Christians, Jews and Heathen', as it says in onecrusader song, lived there in more or less adequatemutual respect, each following their own religioustraditions in accordance with their beliefs 1. It is knownthat Alfonso the Wise, King of Castille and Leon, had acourt chapel with musicians and poets from all threefaiths. In Andalusia (al-andalus in Arabic), underIslamic domination for over seven hundred years, therewere Jewish scholars holding high official positionsunder the Caliphate. The Ottoman Empire too, at theother side of the Mediterranean, was decidedlyheterogeneous in language, religion and culture. Themajority of the people in the European provinces wereOrthodox Christians. The Jewish, Greek Orthodox,Roman Catholic, Armenian, Gregorian and Moslemcommunities enjoyed a certain religious and culturalautonomy, allowed a free hand by the state in regulatingtheir own affairs. Already at the beginning of the MiddleAges there was a lively cultural exchange between theseapparently so diverse cultures, each learning from theother. It came about, therefore, that not only were manymusical instruments, up to that time unknown in theWest, introduced into Christian music, but also verydifferent forms of poetry, an art then at its height in thecultural centres of the East. Music, in Christian Europeprincipally the preserve of the clergy, enjoyed highprestige as an art-form of poetry in the East.It may seem difficult to find intercourse betweenthese three great cultures in the thirteenth and fourteenthcenturies, a time of conquest and crusades. Yet closerinspection reveals links between all three, somethingthat has not changed up to today; with great intellectualcuriosity each investigates the other and learns from it,even if they are not too ready to admit it.On the sourcesKnown as the Disciplinati di Ges?? Cristo, Confraternit?ádi Santa Maria delle Laudi or Compagna di SanctoSpirito people would go in procession through thestreets of U
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
